trickle

American  

[trik-uhl] / ˈtrɪk əl /

verb (used without object)

• trickles,
  present (3rd person singular)
• trickled,
  past participle,  past
• trickling
  present participle

1. 

   to flow or fall by drops, or in a small, gentle stream.

   Tears trickled down her cheeks.

2. to come, go, or pass bit by bit, slowly, or irregularly.

   The guests trickled out of the room.

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verb (used with object)

• trickles,
  present (3rd person singular)
• trickled,
  past participle,  past
• trickling
  present participle

1. to cause to trickle.

noun

• trickles
  plural

1. a trickling flow or stream.

   Synonyms:

   drip, seepage, dribble

2. a small, slow, or irregular quantity of anything coming, going, or proceeding.

   a trickle of visitors throughout the day.

trickle British  

/ ˈtrɪkəl /

verb

1. to run or cause to run in thin or slow streams

   she trickled the sand through her fingers

2. (intr) to move, go, or pass gradually

   the crowd trickled away

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noun

1. a thin, irregular, or slow flow of something

2. the act of trickling

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• trickling
  adjective
• trickly
  adjective
• tricklingly
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• trickles
  plural

Participles

• trickling
  present
• trickled
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• trickle
  simple
• trickles
  simple
• have trickled
  perfect
• has trickled
  perfect
• am trickling
  progressive
• are trickling
  progressive
• is trickling
  progressive
• have been trickling
  perfect progressive
• has been trickling
  perfect progressive

Past

• trickled
  simple
• had trickled
  perfect
• was trickling
  progressive
• were trickling
  progressive
• had been trickling
  perfect progressive

Future

• will trickle
  simple
• will have trickled
  perfect
• will be trickling
  progressive
• will have been trickling
  perfect progressive

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Etymology

Origin of trickle

1325–75; Middle English triklen, trekelen (v.), apparently sandhi variant of strikle, perhaps equivalent to strike (in obsolete sense “flow”) + -le

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Explanation

To trickle is to weakly flow out of something, like a faucet. A trickle is like a drip. There are a lot of ways water can flow, but one type of slow dripping is called trickling. If your shower is only releasing a trickle of water, you're not going to get much of a shower. If it's raining — but only a trickle — you might not need an umbrella. A slightly leaky roof is trickling. A trickle is the opposite of a downpour or flood. Trickling can also be called dribbling.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

trickle trickles trickled trickling

Now in 2026, several men wearing all black with red ties, like Way does in the music video directed by Marc Webb, trickle in as soon as the doors open.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 27, 2026

Up and down the country, Israelis will gather to watch the results trickle in, with Netanyahu's Likud meeting in Jerusalem and Eisenkot's Yashar - formed only last year - assembling in Tel Aviv.

From BBC ● Oct. 27, 2026

The seat count could trickle in for days, followed by weeks or months of horse trading to come up with a coalition that can govern.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 27, 2026

But Rohith said the economic benefits would not necessarily trickle down from the warehouse-like facilities.

From Barron's ● Oct. 11, 2026

He climbed forward into the cab again and sat in the driver’s seat and looked out down the river through the slow trickle of water on the glass.

From "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy

Some of that trickles down to workers in India, where there is no shortage of workers prepared to wear a camera for a few dollars a day.

From BBC ● Oct. 23, 2026

The price increase trickles down to all goods sold across the economy.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026

Wells Fargo recommends stocks in the tech, industrials and financial services sectors as spending on artificial intelligence trickles down into the rest of the economy.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 11, 2026

I love this idea that we can bring people together and then it trickles out to other things.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 20, 2026

The Sunday afternoon sun trickles through my streaked window and shines light onto my Miles Morales poster, which features the hero fearlessly swinging through a futuristic neon city.

From "Kwame Crashes the Underworld" by Craig Kofi Farmer

But few of the benefits of that wealth had trickled down to the people who produced it.

From BBC ● Oct. 25, 2026

While some third-quarter results trickled in last week, 79 companies in the S&P 500 are due to report in the week ahead as the pace ramps up.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 18, 2026

Students trickled into some schools despite ongoing protests outside their gates, ahead of a day of larger demonstrations expected on Tuesday.

From Barron's ● Oct. 5, 2026

That White House staffers apparently felt comfortable anonymously attacking Holmes in personal terms suggests that the impulse has trickled down too.

From Slate ● Aug. 18, 2026

Sweat trickled from the back of his neck into the corners of his mouth.

From "Earthquake Terror" by Peg Kehret

This is created by the water trickling through unusually thick bands of gypsum under the town, before resting in underground aquifers.

From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2026

Auen and Walker delight in trickling real historical information — the result of painstaking research they both conducted studying the Chronovisor — through the film at a slow but steady, always compelling pace.

From Salon ● Sep. 7, 2026

Details are still trickling out, but here’s what we know.

From Slate ● Sep. 4, 2026

Yet it’s hard to see the spoils of an AI-driven economy trickling down to everyone.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 2, 2026

The squeals of young girls, the grunts of old women, and the trickling of bathwater echoed between the walls as backs were scrubbed and hair soaped.

From "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini

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Related Words

• crawl
• creep
• dribble
• flow
• leak
• ooze
• percolate
• seep
• stream

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